Knowledge Library

Going forward, securing funding to maintain or kickstart innovation will be critical to businesses across the UK, and this is where government- backed R&D tax incentives could create a crucial financial boost, through a tax repayment on funds spent on innovation projects.

At a time when businesses across the globe are grappling with unprecedented challenges, we must all become more agile and innovative to minimise the potential impact of the unpredictable or indeed turn difficult circumstances to our advantage.

At a time when businesses across the UK are grappling with unprecedented challenges, the advice from business visionaries and leaders alike is that: “digital transformation is the key to mitigating the disruption and building future resilience.”

Investment to promote greater competitiveness is more critical than ever as we embrace economic recovery. While funds will be tight, a focus on greater innovation will be essential for many businesses’ survival.

In this challenging and uncertain economic climate, investing in innovation is an invaluable way for businesses to build resilience.

The last few months have been devastating to a huge number of businesses, but we have also seen REAL innovation - both out of necessity and responding to opportunity.

At a time when businesses across the UK are looking to get back into work, trade associations and membership organisations will be focused on supporting their members. All sorts of commercial organisations will be looking to do a deal to have access to those members, to offer them products and services.

HMRC enquiry rates are rising and, if not handled properly, could damage your business. Questions can be detailed, requests can be onerous and the potentially lengthy process could be costly to you and your business in a number of areas.

Whilst businesses across the UK are continuing to deal with the devastating impact of Covid-19, eyes have now started to turn to the future, moving from crisis management to planning for business recovery.

Not all R&D is done in laboratories by people in white coats...This misconception is preventing thousands of businesses in the UK from making R&D tax relief claims; from bakers to bagpipe makers, software developers to textile manufacturers, R&D can be found anywhere that technical challenges arise.

The Patent Box is a Government scheme through HMRC that provides UK companies that hold qualifying IP rights or an exclusive IP license, and receive relevant IP income, the opportunity to benefit from a reduced rate of corporation tax on relevant profits.

With one in four businesses (25%) having temporarily closed or paused trading and the remaining businesses (still trading) furloughing 21% of their staff, getting cash into your business has never been more critical.

Patent Box is part of the Government’s range of incentives to encourage companies like yours to innovate and maintain the UK’s world-leading position in many sectors by incentivising them to commercialise their patents and R&D in the UK.

The HMRC guidelines for what constitutes R&D are extensive... but not always clear!

Could your product improvement projects be eligible for innovation funding?

Year on year, as more businesses become aware of their eligibility, the number of R&D tax credit claims is steadily increasing.

Latest figures from HMRC show that more than 45,045 SME claims and 7,285 RDEC claims were made across the UK totalling £4.4bn in tax relief.

Research has shown that the majority of businesses under-claim R&D tax credits due to their lack of knowledge of the tax scheme and inability to relate their technical projects and activities to HMRC’s strict guidelines.

Water efficiency is becoming an issue for many industries, with retailers and producers looking at ways of improving the way they utilise their resources. Better waste management not only protects the environment, but it also saves money.

So, you’re already claiming R&D tax credits and doing a pretty good job of it, but what if you could maximise your results?

If you are a company where you have people and costs associated with project activities aimed at advancing what you do, then you could be eligible for R&D tax credits.

Innovations in material technology and electronics, together with improvements to manufacturing processes has enabled the industry to develop in recent years.

You might be developing tools to support safe well intervention in the oil & gas sector. Perhaps you machine complex profiled components from exotic materials within advanced engineering industries, such as aerospace or automotive.

We all love a good myth, particularly mythical creatures, and especially unicorns!

HMRC has a responsibility to ensure that individuals and businesses are paying the correct amount of tax and claim the correct amount of tax benefits, and this applies to R&D tax claims too.

Don’t be a fool and fall for any of these myths about R&D tax credits! Read below where we separate fact from R&D fiction.

light as a feather but strong as steel.

"Sustainability" is the 21st Century's response to "Total Quality Management"

tougher than all the rest.

Manufacturing at double the speed.

"To innovate is easy. The difficulty is to transform an innovation into real business." This quote from Michael Dell, founder of Dell, sums up the biggest challenge facing innovators in the 21st century. In a context of globalized competition, digital revolution and accelerated product life cycles, innovation is no longer an option but a pre-requisite to remaining competitive.

More and more companies are discovering that with a little help from schemes such as Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) and R&D tax relief, they can realise the full potential of R&D opportunities to create innovative products and services that will help their business grow.

Finding the right funding solutions to accelerate and fund your innovation could be the much-needed tonic for your business...

There is no substitute for experience when it comes to a successful R&D tax relief claim.

There were over 48,630 R&D tax credit claims in the UK for FYE 2018 (so far); it's anybody's guess as to how many of them were correct?

There's nearly £3bn in R&D tax credits to be won.

Case studies of software development challenges that qualify for R&D tax relief.

We ask Innovation Funding Consultant Karen Baker, PhD for examples on what makes a project successful for R&D relief.

There is no doubt British companies which have been involved in R&D and those which turn out to be hugely successful are linked.